No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon

The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.

Re:Fine Line For Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

The recent stories, including right here on Slashdot, make it pretty clear that a good deal of the initial hype about the Wii is going away. Too many Wii owners are talking about being bored with the console or talking about how they are playing other consoles after they finished Zelda and grew bored with Wii Sports.

Well, at least the Wii had initial hype ... The PS3 is DOA

Looking at the Wii list of games for 2007 to early 2008 it is looking all too similar to the GameCube lineup. Maybe there are some major third party games that have yet to be announced, but right now I can't think of any major non-Nintendo game to really look forward to in 2007.

Actually the line-up reminds me of the Nintendo DS which is the fastest selling console in history, and is still constantly sold out 2 years after it was released

With 1080p TV prices in freefall, most likely with sub 1000 dollar sets by the middle of this year, Nintendo really needs to have something ready in the next couple of years because the Wii and HD TVs do not go well together.

Being that most people who own 1080p sets still watch DVDs and are not rushing out to buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray players I think the Wii will be fine ...

Nintendo needs to walk a fine line of not Osbourning the current Wii while getting developers ready to start making games for a new system. Which usually starts to happen over a year in advance of the hardware hitting the shelves.

Well, I actually think it is the PS3 that is in trouble being that it is selling as badly as the Dreamcast in both Japan [vgcharts.org] and North America [vgcharts.org]

Enjoy your $600 soon to be dead system

Re:DVD Playback + Wii 2.0

[AKAImBatman]

From what I've heard the rumours about the disc spinning constantly or backwards compared to normal drives were myths from the GameCube discs, which turned out to be regular DVDs with a slightly different encoder or something.

The backwards spin *is* a myth. However, the Constant Angular Velocity is the encoding of which you're thinking about. When you write a disc with CAV, the data spaces out differently than the more tightly packed CLV technology. However, it's easier on the motor because the motor doesn't have to step up and down speeds so much.

Here's *a* source: http://www.emulanium.com/gamecube.php [emulanium.com]
Another: http://www.wiili.org/index.php/GameCube_Optical_Di sc [wiili.org]
Tons More: http://www.google.com/search?q=Gamecube+Constant+A ngular+Velocity [google.com]